


Pictures

by Tinamour



Category: Da Vinci's Demons
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Domestic, F/M, I never know how to tag I'm sorry, Pictures, relationship, slightly angsty, slightly fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-06
Updated: 2017-05-06
Packaged: 2018-10-28 17:25:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10835898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinamour/pseuds/Tinamour
Summary: Riario reflects on the new pictures hanging on the walls





	Pictures

**Author's Note:**

> Back at it again with the Catario Modern AU because that's the only thing I seem able to do for now. I hope you enjoy that small piece!

Riario never owned a camera. For the very simple and sensible reason that he never took pictures.

Firstly, because it seemed like a waste of time and energy to stop and take the time to get a decent, not blurry, picture, with good lightening and proper frame. A struggle he could do without. Secondly, pictures never truly _felt_ the way they were supposed to: they were a reminder of the past, of supposedly nice, exciting, beautiful, worth-remembering moments. Looking back at the ones hanging around or disposed on the sideboard at his aunt’s house, it never felt the same. And the feeling was more one of embarrassment than nostalgia. Thirdly, there was no moment he wanted to remember.

He wasn’t surprised to find photo frames in the boxes Caterina used for packing when she moved in, and he agreed to some of them – mostly landscapes, so beautifully captured they could have been mistaken for paintings – to be hung on the walls. Cat also decorated her part of the study with one enormous noticeboard on which she displayed a collage of the many pictures she had taken herself or gathered from family albums over the years. It was a weird feeling, to know strangers were gazing at you from the wall while you were working. Riario stood one entire hour before that wall, studying every face and expression, trying to recognize people or locations.

Most of them were Cat with her siblings and mother, enjoying a day at the sea or playing in the pool or hugging while smiling at the camera. Some were of her friends, people from her hometown he had never met because they have moved to other towns and other lives. Cat was younger on those pictures, and always smiling. She looked so happy it warmed Riario’s heart. And almost silenced the jealousy creeping inside him.

He couldn’t blame Cat for her childhood and teenage years having been happier than his. He couldn’t blame anyone, and wouldn’t. The real problem was that he felt like if he was missing something, like if those pictures were hers and hers only and that he was a trespasser for only daring to look at them.

He finally avoided even gazing at the board and all was better.

Until, one evening, Cat’s phone buzzed as she left the couch in the veranda to fetch a cup of coffee. Riario grabbed the device when Cat yelled at him from the kitchen to answer the text for her. He mechanically unlocked the phone with his finger and froze. That was him. Caterina’s phone screen background was a picture of _him_. He didn’t even remember her ever taking pictures, but there he was, reading on the couch, apparently so absorbed in the book he hadn’t noticed the camera.

“Is everything alright? Who was it?”

Cat’s arrival startled him more than he would have admitted it to himself.

“I don’t know,” he answered blankly, handing her the phone as she sat by his side.

He felt her side-eyeing him as he picked up his book and resumed reading.

“Okay,” Cat turned to face him, her knee brushing against his leg as she put it on the couch, “what’s troubling you?”

Riario put his book in his lap and met Cat’s eyes.

“Your phone background.”

“What?” Judging from her smile, she wasn’t taking him seriously. But the corners of her lips lowered when Riario kept looking at her with the same intense expression.

“You…disapprove on you being my phone background?”

“No. Not really.” He blinked and took a steadying breath. “It caught me off guard. I wasn’t expecting to…stare at myself when opening your phone.”

Cat’s chuckle was kind. “I understand. But I honestly thought you knew. I’m not that discreet when I’m taking pictures."

“You are stealthier than what you give yourself credit for. Maybe you should consider a paparazzi career?”

She cheerfully elbowed him for his joke and laughed some more when he grabbed her arm, trying to pull her to him. They struggled playfully until Cat surrendered and rested her head on Girolamo’s chest, just above his heart.

“Tell me honestly, are you upset that I took those pictures without asking you first?”

He pondered his answer for a moment, avoiding her gaze and trying to ignore her hand stroking his chest through the fabric of his shirt. “I would have forbidden you from doing it if you had asked. And I would have been wrong to do so.” He carded his fingers through Cat’s hair, making her close her eyes. “But, somehow, I’m glad you took the initiative. I just wonder why you did it.”

“Because they make me miss you less when we are apart.” She left his arms and settled against the back of the couch, their forearms still touching. “That’s why I take pictures: to remember the people I love.”

Riario’s smile spread on his lips before he could think of it.

Cat pressed her forehead against his, lovingly caressing his nose with hers. Riario caught sight of her own quiet smile before he kissed her lips tenderly.

“You know,” Cat whispered when they parted, “because you’ve decided you don’t want future generations to have a proof of your existence, we never took pictures together.”

“Would you like to?”

“Just one, if you don’t mind. So that I can have evidence when I brag to my friends about what a gorgeous couple we make.”

He gave her one more amused kiss, stroking her leg when he reached for the phone behind her.

One hundred deleted pictures, debates about the camera angle and tears of laughter later, they finally got a couple of pictures they both liked. They also had matching phone backgrounds, which Riario didn’t find as cliché and cheesy as he made it sound. He was even considering buying a camera, one day. Maybe some moments were worth remembering.


End file.
